Carlos Sainz says he’s been left in “disbelief” after being handed a significant penalty as formula 1 fans were reportedly threatened with trespassing orders by police.
Sainz was stopped out on the track on the Strip after appearing to run over the loose drain cover. The incident forced a red flag to be issued while the marshals removed Sainz’s Ferrari.
The practice session was eventually abandoned.
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Ferrari repaired Sainz’s car during the two-and-a-half hour delay, leading to him finishing the session in second behind Leclerc.
Sainz was left bewildered after he was handed a 10-place grid penalty for the weekend’s race when FP2 began, for using a third energy store of the season – one more than regulations allow.
FIA stewards said they had no choice but to impose the mandatory sanction despite “highly unusual external circumstances” and reportedly did their utmost to give Ferrari an exception, but could not.
“The stewards note that if they had the authority to grant a derogation in what they consider in this case to be mitigating, unusual and unfortunate circumstances, they would have done so, however the regulations do not allow such action,” the FIA stewards report read.
Sainz was devastated to hear the news after he was left feeling “quite excited and optimistic” after his team’s quick work in fixing the car.
“That changed completely my mindset and my opinion on the weekend and how it’s going to go from now on. I’m disappointed and in disbelief with the situation. You will not see me very happy this weekend,” Sainz said.
“There will be opportunities (on race day). But right now I am just too disappointed with the outcome and I don’t want to talk too much about the future because what happened today, for me, was a very clear example of how this sport can be improved in so many ways.
“The FIA, teams and rules that can clearly be applied as force majeure for me not to take a penalty but someway there is always people or ways to make the situation worse for an individual and in this case it’s my turn to pay the price.”
Aussie AlphaTaur driver Daniel Ricciardo said it’s “not fair” when asked about Sainz’s predicament. The Aussie driver also said officials should have put more focus into making sure the circuit was safe.
“The biggest thing is safety. Fortunately, Carlos is okay but those things could be bigger with bigger consequences.
“I think it’s easy to say now that we did an opening ceremony and we’re kind of focusing on other things, and did they actually do the due diligence on the track?
“So, with all that happened today you could ask some questions like, did they do enough? But that one for sure. I can’t sidestep that one. That is a safety concern.
“Us being here late, that’s fine. But I think the safety one is something hopefully they take pretty seriously.”
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who finished fifth in the shortened session, was also impacted. The team announced that the Frenchman would undergo a chassis change “due to damage from a suspected drain cover on the track.”
One of the most highly-anticipated dates on this year’s motorsport calendar, this is the first time since 1982 that Las Vegas has hosted an F1 race.
The temporary, 6.1km street circuit will go along the famous Las Vegas Strip and a glitzy opening ceremony, which included performances from Kylie Minogue and John Legend, kicked off the event on Wednesday.
But the Grand Prix, for which F1 has invested close to a billion dollars, has not been entirely well received.
On Wednesday, world champion Max Verstappen said that the race was “99 percent show, 1 percent sport,” adding that he “[doesn’t] like it at all.”
Meanwhile, residents have complained on social media and to local news outlets about steep prices, event-related traffic gridlock, barriers blocking public views of the Strip and their sense that the event is geared to high rollers but not to the average fan.
Nevertheless, Renee Wilm, the CEO of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, has told CNN that the event is “set to make history as one of the largest sporting events in Las Vegas, creating unparalleled economic benefits to Southern Nevada.”